PORTMAN GROUP RESPONSE TO Department of Health & Social Care: Low Alcohol Descriptors Consultation Executive Summary The current low alcohol descriptors are confusing for industry and consumers. We encourage Government to take this opportunity to simplify the terms and provide some much-needed clarity and consistency across the regulatory framework to facilitate innovation and growth in this important category. The Portman Group supports the Government‟s preferred method of producing guidance in partnership with industry and other stakeholders. While there is scope to introduce new descriptors above 1.2% ABV, this is a category-specific issue and therefore we have not provided a view on this. The descriptor „low alcohol‟ should be retained, but at a revised threshold to describe products over 0.5% ABV and up to, and including, 1.2% ABV. The descriptor de-alcoholised should be removed, but products should still inform consumers in some way if alcohol has been extracted from the final product. The term non-alcoholic is already widely used and should be permitted broader use than currently allowed (for products of ≤ 0.5% ABV). The descriptor alcohol-free should be retained, but at a revised threshold of ≤ 0.5% ABV, to align with the definition of „alcohol‟ in the Licensing Act 2003 and be consistent with other European Members States definitions of alcohol-free. We recommend that all products below 1.2% ABV should indicate their ABV and include the relevant descriptor. The Portman Group The Portman Group (PG) is the responsibility body for drinks producers in the UK. Our role is to: Lead on best practice on alcohol social responsibility through the actions of our member companies; Regulate the promotion and packaging of alcoholic drinks sold or marketed in the UK through our Code of Practice (the „Code‟); Challenge and encourage the industry to market its products responsibly. 1 The Portman Group is a not-for-profit organisation funded by eight member companies1 who represent every sector of drinks production and collectively account for more than half the UK alcohol market. The Portman Group welcomes and fully supports the Department of Health and Social Care‟s (“DHSC”) aim to enable consumers to make informed choices when they purchase drinks, including alcohol; and, its commitment to the principle of increasing consumer choice in the alcohol-free and low alcohol category. The Portman Group agrees these aims can be achieved by simplifying the current low alcohol descriptors to encourage the purchase of these drinks to help promote responsible drinking2. Question 1: Do you agree with the Government’s preferred option of providing guidance working with industry and other stakeholders to describe low alcohol descriptors rather than legislate after 13 December 2016? 1. The Portman Group is supportive of the Government‟s preferred option of providing guidance, working with industry and other stakeholders to describe low alcohol descriptors, when the sunset clause takes effect in December 2018. We welcome Government‟s positive recognition of self-regulation and its ability to be as effective as legislation. Through the work of the Portman Group and its Codes of Practice3, the industry has a strong track record of self-regulation: removing from the market products and promotions that are found by the Independent Complaints Panel to breach the Code; and, encouraging industry to market its products responsibly by offering free advice and guidance. 2. The Portman Group, through its free Advisory Service, already provides guidance to the industry on naming, packaging and promotion, and would welcome further discussion with officials on how we can best support the development and implementation of new guidance. 3. The Portman Group supports the principle that the relevant enforcement authorities would still be expected to have regard to the guidance when assessing whether a descriptor was misleading; this will provide the necessary „regulatory‟ framework. Misleading descriptors have the potential to cause harm to consumers and the relevant enforcement authorities would need the power and resource to deal with such products quickly and consistently. 4. In 2017 the Portman Group produced new guidance for industry on how to communicate alcohol and health-related information to consumers, across multiple channels including on-pack. As part of this, the Department of Health and the Food Standards Agency agreed a two year timetable for removing out-of-date information; this allowed producers to continue to sell-through stock before the deadline. We 1 AB InBev, Bacardi Brown-Forman Brands, Carlsberg, Diageo, Heineken, Mast-Jagermeister UK Ltd, Molson Coors, Pernod Ricard, 2 Polling conducted by Club Soda showed that 83% of consumers questioned were trying to reduce their overall alcohol consumption when purchasing low and no alcohol products (data excludes ARUK recipient answers 3 Code of Practice on the Naming, Packaging and Promotion of Alcoholic Drinks; Code of Practice on Alcohol Sponsorship 2 believe that a similar grace period should be put in place for industry to comply with new guidance. 5. We agree that it is sensible to keep the proposed guidance under review and to assess its effectiveness in three years‟ time. After a two year grace period it would be imperative to audit the market in order to determine the success of guidance. Question 2: Do you have any evidence to support the case for introducing new alcoholic drink descriptors above 1.2% ABV? 6. The Portman Group believes that there is scope to explore this area but as this is a sector-specific issue, and we are a cross-sector organisation we have no evidence or particular view to support the case for introducing new alcoholic drink descriptors above 1.2% ABV. Nonetheless, we would ask Government to consider the impact of new definitions on all categories of alcohol; and, should Ministers be minded to replace the industry-used definition of „lower‟ we would be keen to see these changes introduced in a way that ensured we first had the opportunity to review our Code and guidance to ensure clarity and consistency for producers. 7. In response to the Government‟s Alcohol Strategy in 2012 we amended our Code to allow greater flexibility for marketing of products with a relatively lower alcoholic strength within their category. At the time, we recognised that it was not our role to define strength categories or create new ones. We therefore took a pragmatic approach and used existing terms set within legislation and, where they existed, the UK average strengths by category of drink4. Code rule 3.2(a) requires that a drink‟s naming, packaging and promotion should not in any direct or indirect way: (a) give the higher alcoholic strength, or intoxicating effect, undue emphasis. A product’s lower alcoholic strength may be emphasised proportionately when it is below the average strength for similar beverages. Factual information about alcoholic strength may be given5 8. The rule effectively allows for two types of claim to be made: i. Products which are below average strength (within category), or existing products which have been reformulated to below average strength, may make a virtue of their strength providing this is done in a manner which is proportionate to the product‟s strength relative to the category average; ii. Products of above average strength for a category can make factual statements about strength, or factual statements about the reduction in strength, following any reformulation. 4 Information supplied by the Department of Health 5 Under the UK Food Labelling Regulations 1996, Regulation 42(1) and Schedule 8 Part I, the description „low alcohol‟ or any other word or description which implies that the drink being described is „low‟ in alcohol shall not be applied to any alcoholic drink unless the drink is no more than 1.2% abv. 3 9. The rule requires that the „lower‟ strength must be emphasised proportionately when it is below the average strength for its category i.e. the greater the ABV difference between the product being presented and its predecessor (reformulated products) or the greater the difference between the product being presented and the average strength for its category, the more emphasis that can be placed on the lower strength product. In practice, the Advisory Service looks for reductions of around 30% (similar to reductions required under the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulations 2006) for a product to place greater emphasis on the lower strength of the product. For instance, the average strength of beer is 4.2% ABV, any beer below this and above 1.2% ABV could be classified as „lower‟, with more emphasis permitted for those products at 1.3% - 2.9% ABV. 10. The aim of the revision was to enable producers to present consumers with clear information without breaching the Code, on product labelling and at point-of-sale, to allow them to make sensible drinking choices. 11. In practice, the rule impacts on the marketing of beer, ciders and wines more so than spirits because of the greater strength variations permitted within these sectors, and because the legal minimum strength for some spirits is set at 37.5% ABV (40% for whisky and brandy/cognac). In the Portman Group‟s Advisory Service, we have seen examples of producers expressing an interest in promoting what they consider to be „lower-strength‟ spirits (spirit-based drinks between 20% and 37.5% ABV) as an alternative and we are pleased to see the consultation document acknowledges